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The brochure and preliminary agenda are now available for Crane Data'​s 5th annual Money Fund Symposium, the largest gathering of money fund professionals anywhere, which will be held June 19-​21, 2013 at The Hyatt Regency Baltimore. The Agenda has been posted on the Symposium website (​www.​moneyfundsymposium.​com), which is also now accepting registrations ($​750) and hotel reservations. Brochures will be sent to past attendees and to Crane Data subscribers later this week. (​E-​mail us at info@​cranedata.​com to request the full brochure.) Last year'​s Money Fund Symposium in Pittsburgh attracted over 420 money fund managers, marketers and servicers, cash investors, and money market securities dealers and issuers, and was supported by 30 sponsors and exhibitors.

After an initial "Welcome to Money Fund Symposium 2013" by Peter Crane, President & Publisher of Crane Data, this year'​s agenda will start the afternoon of June 19 with the keynote speech "Moving Forward: Money Funds & Washington" by ICI'​s Paul Schott Stevens. The opening afternoon will also feature: "The Treasury Talks: FSOC & Floating Notes" with U.​S. Department of the Treasury'​s Matt Rutherford. This will be followed by a session entitled, "Corporate & MMFs: Liquidity Is Still King" with Jeff Glenzer from the Association for Financial Professionals and Tony Carfang of Treasury Strategies. The first day will close with a panel, "Major Money Fund Issues 2013" featuring Charlie Cardona of BNY Mellon CIS/​Dreyfus, Debbie Cunningham of Federated Investors and Nancy Prior of Fidelity Management & Research. The opening reception will be sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Day 2 of Money Fund Symposium features: "The State of The Money Market Fund Industry" with Peter Crane of Crane Data and Robert Deutsch of J.​P. Morgan Asset Management; "Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives" with Chris Stavrakos of BlackRock, Dave Sylvester of Wells Fargo Funds and John Tobin of J.​P. Morgan Asset Management; "Repurchase Agreement Issues & Update" with Joseph Abate of Barclays Capital and Rob Sabatino of UBS Global Asset Management; and "Municipal Money Fund Market Update" with Helena Condez of T. Rowe Price Associates, Colleen Meehan of Dreyfus Corp., and Ron Vandenhandel of Deutsche Bank.

The afternoon of Day 2 (​after a Dreyfus-​sponsored lunch) features: "Dealer Doings: Supply, Innovations, Concerns" moderated by Lu Ann Katz of Invesco and featuring Chris Condetta of Barclays Capital, John Kodweis of J.​P. Morgan Securities, and Jean-​Luc Sinniger of Citi Global Markets; "Government Agency Issuers & Supernationals" with Jonathon Hartley of FHL Banks Office of Finanace, Regina Gill of Federal Farm Credit Funding, and Michael Schulze of KfW; "Risks to Ratings: Areas of Concern" with Peter Yi of Northern Trust, Roger Merritt of Fitch Ratings and Peter Rizzo of Standard & Poor'​s; and "Survivor: Update on European Money Funds" with Jonathon Curry of HSBC Global Asset Management and Dan Morrissey of William Fry. (​The Day 2 reception is sponsored by Barclays.)

The third day of Symposium features: "Strategists Speak '​13: Fed, Cash Plus & Europe" with Brian Smedley of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Alex Roever of J.​P. Morgan Securities, and Garret Sloan of Wells Fargo Securities; "Regulatory Roundtable: Pending & Potential" with John McGonigle of Federated Investors, and possibly a speaker from the Securities & Exchange Commission (​invite pending). The last section includes: "Portal Panel: Beyond MMFs & Transparency" with John Carter of Citi Global Transaction Services and George Hagerman of Cachematrix; and, finally, "Technology Tools & Software Update" with Peter Crane, Anthony Mossa of Bloomberg, and James Morris of Investortools.

Money Fund Symposium 2013 promises once again to be "​the" place to be for money market professionals -- register and reserve your spot today! Exhibit space for Money Fund Symposium is $​3,​000; and sponsorship opportunities are $​4.​5K, $​6K, $​7.​55K, and $​10K. Finally, our next Crane'​s Money Fund University is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 23-​24, 2014, in Providence. Note too that Crane Data is preparing to launch its first European Money Fund Symposium, which is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 26-​27, 2013 in Dublin, Ireland. Contact us or watch for more details in coming weeks.

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The Associated Press about the new trend of daily posting of money funds' market NAVs in "TMI? New disclosures by money-​market funds are about more than just an investor'​s need to know." The article says, "​The more informed you are, the better. Yet there'​s so much information about mutual funds available, from performance data to legal disclosures, that it'​s understandable to wonder what information you really need to know. For the past three weeks, many investors have been able to check out new information that falls into this category. On a fund company'​s website, they can click on list of available money-​market funds to see daily updates showing tiny changes in the market value of a money fund'​s portfolio." (​Note: Crane Data'​s Money Fund Intelligence Daily now includes "​shadow" or "​market" NAVs for those funds that are publishing them; we label these as "MNAVs".)

AP explains, "Goldman Sachs on Jan. 9 became the first to post daily values of its money funds. More than a half-​dozen other companies have since followed suit or announced similar plans. They include the largest money fund provider, Fidelity Investments, as well as such names as Charles Schwab, Federated Investors, BlackRock, JPMorgan and Charles Schwab. There'​s minimal practical value for average investors to review these numbers. Money funds get relatively little attention because they'​re low-​risk investments, and their portfolios of short-​term bonds generate tiny returns even in the best of times."

The article continues, "But by voluntarily making these daily disclosures, the money fund industry is doing more than just serving investors. It'​s trying to convince regulators that it'​s open to some degree of change, in hopes of heading off more far-​reaching rules that are under consideration to stabilize money funds." AP quotes Peter Crane of money fund researcher Crane Data, "All of a sudden, the industry got religion on transparency. It'​s throwing a bone to regulators."

AP adds, "With its leadership in transition, it'​s too early to say how the Securities and Exchange Commission will react to the industry'​s increased openness. But the step could convince regulators that there'​s no need to require funds to hold loss reserves -- there are none currently -- or that there'​s no need to set limits on how quickly investors can withdraw cash."

The article tell us, "So far, money funds are making daily disclosures covering more than half of the industry'​s assets, according to Crane Data. But there are some holdouts. One is Vanguard.... Each of the more than 200 funds that Crane Data tracked through Jan. 22 posted net asset values above $​1 a share. On average, the funds published market values of $​1.​0002, or a dollar and two-​hundredths of a penny. Typically, values are rounded off to four decimal places."

They quote Crane, "Anyone tracking this should expect to see a lot of zeros. So far, there have been no nines, and that'​s good." Our latest data from MFI Daily shows the 252 funds out of 1,​067 we track daily with MNAVs ranging from 1.​0000 to 1.​0017. Taxable money funds average 1.​0001, while Tax Exempt money funds average 1.​0004. (​The Tax Exempt universe is much thinner as many fund managers are only reporting their "​Prime" money fund MNAVs.)

Money fund managers publishing daily NAVs currenty include: BlackRock (​most funds), BofA (​some funds), Federated (​some funds), Fidelity (​all funds), Goldman Sachs (​all funds), Invesco (​most funds), and JPMorgan (​all funds). Schwab and Reich & Tang have announced that they will post, but their data has yet to appear. Other fund complexes are expected to join the trend in coming weeks.

Finally, AP quotes Crane, "Anything happening in the world that'​s important enough to noticeably move a fund'​s net asset value is probably something that'​s important enough to be in the newspapers. So you can just stay alert that way, rather than watching all these zeros."

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